Why Break Boards?

[Richard Scardina]

Is board breaking truly a test of power and/or specialized skill?

[len mccoy]

Think of it this way. How else could you have confidence in a technique like nukite (spear hand thrust). You don't use it in sparring, it shows up in a lot of kata, but the fingers seem so fragile to really strike hard with. First time you put your finger tips through an inch of pine board your confidence in the technique goes up amazingly.

Having said that there are excellent karate styles that do no breaking.

Mas Oyama used the anology that karate was a tree and kumite and tamashiwara (literally spirit training but usually just translated as breaking) are fruit.

I don't think it is quite what he meant but you can have a useful tree without fruit but fruit only comes from the tree.

Before I ever took a karate class I could break boards with a simple shuto strike so in isolation it doesn't prove much about your karate.
Just my thoughts
Respectfully,
Len McCoy

[Trevor Johnson]

From my point of view, what it tests is your ability to trust yourself, and your ability to strike through a target. If either of those is lacking, nothing breaks.

[Flintstone]

If either of those is lacking, nothing breaks.

Most probably something will break anyway. Certainly not the intended target.

[Richard Scardina]

Is it a test of power?

[BlackPaladin]

I will answer with a little story.

I saw an out-of-shape Mas Oyama lineage black belt break a brick once. A year later, I asked another guy (TKD black belt and wrestling champ) why this fat old guy who I was stronger, quicker, and faster than could break a brick, and I couldn't. (Never tried at that point, I was just sayin'.)

He said, "He breaks it because he KNOWS he can break it."

A few months later, I decided to break a board in my backyard. I "got it."

[Trevor Johnson]

Is it a test of power?

Confidence. The ability to think through your target. If your confidence fails, or if you punch at the surface of the target instead of an inch or so behind it, nothing's going to happen, and, as Flintstone said, your hand may break.

[Duanew]

To paraphrase Kenwa Mabuni-breaking demonstrations are for the boastful.
As far as breaking...
Do you bake the boards before you break them-cheater.
Do you use something less than an 8x12 board or standard width patio block-cheater.
Do you use spacers-cheater.
Does you break involve you falling on it with your body weight-cheater.
It always cracks me up to see people breaking 4x12 boards or bricks and then talking about their "power". If whatever you are breaking will break by dropping it on the floor from five feet-cheater.
Ice-cheater.
If you want to test your power balance the object on edge on a table and hit it unsupported. If you can break it then you have some power.

Most of it has nothing to do with skill or power-it's knowing the tricks. I've seen 10th Degree Okinawan masters use cheap parlor tricks in their demos.......Trying to make karate look more magical or mystical than it is or they are.

Duane

[TonyU]

To paraphrase Kenwa Mabuni-breaking demonstrations are for the boastful.
As far as breaking...
Do you bake the boards before you break them-cheater.
Do you use something less than an 8x12 board or standard width patio block-cheater.
Do you use spacers-cheater.
Does you break involve you falling on it with your body weight-cheater.
It always cracks me up to see people breaking 4x12 boards or bricks and then talking about their "power". If whatever you are breaking will break by dropping it on the floor from five feet-cheater.
Ice-cheater.
If you want to test your power balance the object on edge on a table and hit it unsupported. If you can break it then you have some power.

Most of it has nothing to do with skill or power-it's knowing the tricks. I've seen 10th Degree Okinawan masters use cheap parlor tricks in their demos.......Trying to make karate look more magical or mystical than it is or they are.

Duane

A little cynical, maybe. You're right though. I'm more impressed with the karateka that break a makiwara or bends a heavy bag in half.

[Richard Scardina]

http://www.howeverythingworks.org/jo...Article1.1.pdf

Another factor in breaking, is the material selected. Its very size per dimension per length, width, and thickness are all going to have a role. (And the words "along the grain" has it share in the role.)


Take a long piece of wood. It will snap with less force than a much shorter piece.

If someone is using pine boards 1 ft x 1 ft at 1 inch thick, the very nature of the wood (per its species), the size which is going to allow to flex, will break easier.

Multiple Boards-The top board is the prime force and the other boards follow. These "follow", not by the force of the person, but by the force of inertia and mass, collasping per a domino effect.

I seen people do board demos for decades. I have seen people actually drop their boards, and the boards cracked upon a mere short-level drop, clearly signifying that the boards were not that tough.

Board breaking, in my view is more of a matter of speed, focus, and mental challenge.

And I will say it doesnt have to be someone trained in martial arts to break a board.


Last but not least;

"Boards dont hit back"

[Trevor Johnson]

It depends, I've seen some very sappy green boards, with the sap drying on them, not break for anything people tried, until they went back to basics and settled down to punching. Fancy spin kicks need not apply to that one.

And as for makiwara, yeah, no kidding. I know one person who's managed to break a makiwara with a punch. We generally make ours from a 4 by 4, and shave and pad the top a bit. HE never felt like he had enough power in his punch, either. The rest of us, mind you, felt he had plenty! Fast fellow, too!

He would occasionally do a really tight roll so he finished spinning several inches above the ground and just go THUD. You could feel the floor shake. He did it to remind himself how to take hard throws. Most of the rest of us were blessing our luck that he was a kindly fellow, and had great control. When he threw a junior, even one who was shaky at falling, the junior came back up to their feet like a feather after a perfect roll.

[DustyMars]

In the event that one is attacked by a tree; one is always prepared to defent one's self by practicing on a piece of dead tree.

[Richard Scardina]

In the event that one is attacked by a tree; one is always prepared to defent one's self by practicing on a piece of dead tree.

That was funny. Still, a few here who had posted, had some interesing reasons, beyond a mere demonstration of out of ordinary of power, ego, and showmanship, for breaking.

[wmuromoto]

Be careful, though, "don't go ninjering nobody that don't need no ninjering."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2U-ZQMf56I


Wayne Muromoto

[Richard Scardina]

Be careful, though, "don't go ninjering nobody that don't need no ninjering."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2U-ZQMf56I


Wayne Muromoto

Thats was a riot!!!!

Was that guy for real or was that a actual comedy skit?